Indian badminton ace Kidambi Srikanth has officially replaced Denmark's Viktor Axelsen to become World Number 1 in the latest edition of the BWF rankings that were released on Thursday.

Kidambi Srikanth (Image: Twitter)

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Indian badminton ace Kidambi Srikanth has officially replaced Denmark's Viktor Axelsen to become World Number 1 in the latest edition of the BWF rankings that were released on Thursday.

Srikanth becomes the first Indian male player to achieve this feat and joins Saina Nehwal, who became the first Indian girl to become world No. 1. In March 2015, Saina had scaled the summit and remains the only Indian girl to achieve this feat thus far.

Srikanth won four Super Series titles - Indonesia, Australia, Denmark, France - in 2017 and became only the fourth shuttler in the world to achieve this feat. He had secured the No.2 ranking on November 2, 2017

Reigning world champion Viktor Axelsen has 77130 points but lost 1660 points and slipped down the ladder and won’t be able to defend the Malaysian Open title that he had won last year.

Srikanth, who helped India clinch a Gold medal in mixed team badminton event on Monday and is now in the quarter-finals of the Men's singles draw at the Commonwealth Games, has moved to the top of rankings with 76,895 points.